Ruffling attachment.



H. J. DAHL.

RUFFLING ATTACHMENT.

APPLIGATION FILED JUNE 13, 1906.

Patented Jan, 7, 1913.

2 sums-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES:

N V ENTOR A TTORN E Y.

COLUMBIA fiLImooRm-n cu. WASHINGTON n. c.

H. J. DAHL.

RUPFLING ATTACHMENT.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 13, 1906.

Patented Jan. 7, 1913.

2 SHEETS -SHBET 2.

Q We

I NV EN TOR ATTORNE Y.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO-JVASIHNGTON, n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. I

HARRY J. DAHL, or rHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR- 'ro UNION sPEcIAL MACHINE COMPANY, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION or" ILLINOIS.

RUFFLING ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 7,1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY J DAHL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city and county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ruf fling Attachments, of which the following is a full, clear, and complete disclosure.

My invention relates to attachments for sewing machines, and particularly to that class of the same which are designed to operative position on an over-stitch machine; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the same, showing the ruffler in an inoperative position,and the loop forming needle about to recede into the casing of the machine;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the machine showing the rufiler in operative position and the needle bar'in its upper position; Fig. 4 is also a transverse section, but showing therultler in inoperative position and the needle bar in its lowered position, and Fig. 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4. I

My improved ruftling device may be applied to any of the well known over-stitching machines, so I have only illustrated the essential elements of the latter.

The numerall indicates the bench upon which the machines are attached, 2 and 2 represent the upright and horizontal arms respectively, 3 and 4 the presser foot bar and the needle bar respectively, 5 and 6 the presser footand needle, 7 the worktable, 8 the reciprocating needlebar arm, secured to the needle bar by the screw 9,

' the said needle bar being vertically reciprocated in a manner too common for illustration in the sewing machine art. The lower bearing block for the presser foot and needle bar is indicated at 10 and the loop forming needle at 11. The mechanism for operating theuabove elements concealed within the metalcasing 12, and'may be of any type known in the art. The 'ruiiling mechanism consists of a frame, 15 secured at the right of and adjacent to the needle bar in any well known manner. .The said frame is L- shaped, and has two downwardly and outwardly projecting arms16 and 17 through apertures in the end of which passes the reciprocating bar 18; Passing through the said bar is a hollow tubular shaft 19 (see Fig.5) and a smaller central shaft 20. On theright hand end of the shaft 19 is fastened the collar 21 by means of a long screw 22, which also serves as a lever for rocking the said bar in a manner which will hereinafter be described. The centralshaft 20 passes out of the hollow shaft 19, atthe right end thereof, and is capped by a collar 23, which is secured to the same by means of screws 24-24. A 'sleeve 25, having a longitudinal slot 25 in its under side, fits over the collar 23, the said sleeve being held in position by the nut 26 on the screw threaded pin 27, which latter terminates in a disk 29, the function of which wil hereinafter. be described.

The sleeve 25 is fastened over'the inner collar 23 by means of the wire 28 having an eye in each end, through which eyes pass the screw threaded lever 22 and the screw 30 respectively. A lever 31, pivoted at 32 on the projecting arm 17 of the frame 15, has its free end in front of therocking lever 22, and normally exerts a force inward, by virtue of its connection with the spring 33.

Secured to the front'of the projecting arm 16 and the frame15 is the cam plate 34, having the inclined edge 35 and the straight edge 36, against which edges bears the pin 56, rigidly attached to the inner shaft 20,

when the bar 18 is shifted laterally, as will hereinafter be described. On the left hand end of the inner shaft 20 is secureda rigid lever 38, which is connected to a lug 39 on the ruttling'blade'4c0 by meansof a pitman 11' pivoted at each end. The pitman 41 is normally depressed by the spring 41,

against which it maybe. raisedby'an upward movementof the pin 56, in a manner hereinafter described. The ruffling bladeeO is pivotedat its outer end on the pin 12, and is serrated on its inner end in the usual manner of ruffling blades. Secured to the hollow sleeve 19 immediately adjacent to the lever 88 and at the left thereof is the swinging plate 48, which carries at its lower end the pin 42, on which is loosely journaled the ruflling blade 40, as hereinbefore described. The oscillation of the hollow sleeve 19 by means of the lever 37 rigidly attached to the collar 21, causes the lower end of the said plate, which carries the ruiiiing blade 40, to have an oscillatory transverse movement, which is a part of the operation of the rufiiing. Rigidly secured to the bar 18 and extending downwardly immediately adjacent to the plate 43 is a plate 44, having rigidly attached to its lower end the plate 45, which is bent laterally at its lower end and carries the stripper 55 of the rufiiing mechanism. A stop 45 is secured to the forward end of the plate 45, to limit the forward movement of the plate 43. The disk 29 is pivotally secured to the upper end of the lever 46, the intermediate portion of which is pivotally secured at 47 to a lug 48, rigid with the frame.

Projecting from the intermediate portion of the lever 46, substantially at right angles thereto, in the manner of a bell crank lever, is the arm 49. The said lever 46 is also continued downwardly into an extension, as shown at 50, but broken away. The said lever 46 is adapted to swing on the pivot 47, so that its upper end will travel through a sufficient are to throw the rufiler from its inoperative position to its operative position, as will hereinafter be described. The amplitude of the are through which the disk 29 travels coincides with the distzhice between the arm 17 and the plate 44. The swinging of the lever from right to left, which is the direction taken when the ruflier passes from its inoperative to its operative position, is resisted by a spring 51, which is coiled longitudinally at 52 and fastened to the right hand end of the lug 48 by means of the disk 53 and a screw 54. On the top of the projecting arm 16 is secured a plate 60, through which passes a rod 61, pivoted at its upper end at 62, and turned at right angles at its lower end, as at 63, and terminating in a downwardly inclined portion 64. The lever arm 49 of the lever 46 is unobstructed in its movement except when it is desired to lock the same in its downward position, as indicated in Fig. 1, in which case I provide a locking device which consists of a plate 65 pivoted at 66 to the cover 12, and having projecting from each end thereof the pins 67 and 68. l/Vhen it is desired to lock said lever arm in its lowered position, the said plate 65 is swung on its pivot from a substantially horizontal to a vertical position, so that the pin 68 will enter the depression 69, and prevent the said lever arm from returning to its normal position.

Having now described the construction of my device, I will proceed to explain the operation thereof.

As the device is capable of turning out so many kinds of work, I will merely describe that which would seen to embody all the essentials of ordinary over-stitching and ruffiing. Assuming that it is desired to stitch a tube to another piece of work, as, for instance, sewing in the finished sleeve of a shirtwaist into the body portion, the said sleeve is turned inside out, so that the edge of the upper end of the sleeve coincides with the edge of the body portion. During the operation, it is not only desired to secure the parts together by an overstitch, but also to ruflle the top portion of the sleeve or shoulder of the garment. The operation may begin at any point around the edge, as, for instance, directly under the arm, just forward of one of the back seams of the body portion, the direction of sewing being from back to front in relation to the garment. To begin the operation, the goods are placed so that the edges referred to will take their position in the line of feed under the presser foot 5, and the over-stitching continues in the ordinary manner of such machines until it reaches the forward part of the shoulder where it is desired to gather or ruffle the goods. The machine is then stopped, and the rufliing mechanism thrown into the line of feed by shifting the bar 18 through the medium of the lever 46, which may be operated by the extension portion 50 through the pressure of the knee of the operator against the resistance of the spring 51 or in any other manner. l Vhen the plate 55 is within the line of feed, the body portion of the garment is placed under said plate and the sleeve portion over said plate. In the meantime, the shifting of the bar 18 has caused the tubular shaft 19 and the inner shaft 20 to move laterally without losing their relative longitudinal relation therewith, but the rocking pin 56 has traveled along the straight edge 36 of the cam plate 34 and up the inclined edge 85 under the influence of the spring 41, which presses downwardly on the pitman 41, and through the medium of the lever 38, turns the shaft 20 as the said pin 56 travels up the inclined edge 35. This operation causes the ruilier blade 40 to swing downwardly 011 its pin into contact with the work on the top of the plate 55 when it has reached the line of feed. The ruflling mechanism is held in this position either by the means hereinbefore described for locking the lever arm 49 or by a continuous pressure of the knee on the extension arm 50 of the lever 46. In the latter case, the ruflier may be thrown out of operative position more quickly than when it is locked by some positive mechanism. lVhen the ruliler has been thrown into the line of feed or into operative position, so that the garment travels along the plate 55 and the garment edge and the sleeve edge over the plate 55, the machine may be started, which causes the needle bar arm 8 to reciprocate up and down, thus giving a reciprocating motion to the depending bar 61 and its lower end 63 and 64. The reciprocations thus given to the horizontal portion 63 are communicated to the lever 37 by virtue of the said lever having, during its movement toward the line of feed, traveled up the inclined portion 64 and into the amplitude of the reciprocations of the part 63. The lever 37 thus oscillates the hollow shaft 19, which gives a resulting oscillation to the lower end of the plate 43, to which is pivoted the ruffler blade 40. Thus, the over-stitching and the rufliing are done simultaneously, and the ruffled portion passes under the presser bar, and is over-stitched in the same manner as if the rufiling had been done on a separate machine. When the edges of the work have reached the rear portion of the shoulder, and it is desired to throw the rufiler out of operative position, and to continue the overstitching to finish up the tube, the lever 46 is released, and by virtue of the resiliency of the spring 51 the bar 18 is shifted to the right again, and assumes its original position, as shown in Fig. 2, where the lever 37 ceases to be in the line of oscillation with the lever 63 and the rufiling blade 40 has been raised as it left the work by the movement of the pin 56 down the inclined edge 35 of the cam plate 84. This shifting of the rufiiing mechanism into an inoperative position is done without stopping the machine. Should it be desired to over-stitch the edge of the tube to another portion or ruflle the entire way around, the transverse seam of the tube would, at the same time during the operation, come in contact with the transverse edge of the plate 55. By an instantaneous lateral shifting, however, the ruifier is first lifted and then thrown out of the way, and the stitching continued over the seam when the machine is stopped and the rufiier thrown back again into 1ts operative position.

It is the custom in the art, when it is desired to ruflie an edge and stitch the same to another edge, to place the two edges together and feed them through a machine having a rufiling blade attached thereto. This operation results in long stitching and ruffling of so much of the edges as it is desired to rufiie. In order to secure thetwo edges firmly together, a further stitching is required, in which,in the case of a single stitch in contradistinction to an over-stitch, the edges of the goods are folded so as to present a smooth edge; then the same is stitched thoroughly together in a single stitching machine, the stitching beginning v 'and continuing beyond the rufiied portion,

according to the nature of the work required. It will be readily seen that such a method of rufliing and single stitching involves the following steps: 1st, the rufliing of the edges in one machine; 2nd, the folding of the goods to present a smooth edge to the stitching machine proper, and 8rd, the final stitching of the'said folded edges. In the case of an over-stitch, two steps are required, being the same as those in the case of the single step, omitting the folding of the edges. By the construction herein'described, I so combine over-stitching mechanism with shifting rufiling mechanism that the method described above may be done in one operation, that is, the two edges are placed together and stitched in the ordinary manner of over-stitching until that part of the goods which is to be ruffled comes up to the line of feed. The rufiling mechanism is then thrown into the line of feed and the rufiling continues, together with the over-stitching, as long as desired, and the operator may throw out the ruflling mechanism without stopping the machine, and continue along with the over-stitching plain edge as far as desired.

When it is desired to do plain rufliing and stitching the rufiler operates upon the goods in advance of the over stitching mechanism, thus the ruffling and the finishing of the seams may be done in the same machine.

In arranging the ruflier so that the same may be shifted laterally, as herein before described, enables the parts of the goods or material which it is not desired or is impossible to rufile to be fed to the over stitching mechanism and at the same time enables the operator to have ready access to the feed which is very desirable in rapidly op- -erating machines of this character.

Although I have described my ruiiler as being operated from the same lever which reciprocates the needle bar, it is obvious that I may connect the same up to any reciprocating part, accordingto convenience,

and while I have illustrated and described the machine as being secured to a rigid part of the machine adjacent to the needle bar, it is obvious that the said frame may be of any configuration, and be rigidly attached to any part of the machine, so long as it maintains the ruffler in the desired position.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to protect by Let ters Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination with over-stitching mechanism, of ruffling mechanism arranged to operate within the line of feed, and means pivoted to a rigid portion of the machine for shifting said rufiiing mechanism transversely to the line of feed.

2. The combination with over-stitching mechanism of rufliing mechanism arranged to operate within the line of feed, and means for shifting said ruifling mechanism transversely to the line of feed, consisting of a lever pivoted to a part rigid in relation to the machine.

3. The combination with over-stitching mechanism of ruffling mechanism arranged to operate within the line of feed, a spring actuated lever and means for releasing the same to effect an instantaneous lateral shifting of said ruflling mechanism into an inoperative position.

l. Mechanism for overstitching in combination with mechanism for ruiiiing within the line of feed, the said rufliing mechanism arranged to be operated by a moving part of the machine, and means for effecting an instantaneous lateral shifting of said rutfling mechanism into an inoperative position.

5. An attachment for sewing machines comprising ruffling mechanism, the said mechanism arranged to be operated by a moving part of the machine, and means for effecting an instantaneous lateral shifting of the said mechanism into an inoperative position.

6. An attachment for sewing machines comprising rutlling mechanism, the said mechanism arranged to be operated by a moving part of the machine, and means for effecting an instantaneous lateral shifting of said mechanism into an inoperative position, including a spring actuated lever.

7. An attachment for sewing machines comprising rutliing mechanism, the said mechanism arranged to be operated by a moving part of the machine, and means for effecting an instantaneous lateral shifting of said mechanism, the said means including a sprmg.

8. A ruliiing attachment for sewing ma chines comprising a pivoted rufiiing blade,-

means for lifting the free end of said blade away from the work, the said means con sisting of a shaft arranged to be oscillated by a moving part of the machine, the said shaft having a. rigid member projecting therefrom, a cam plate attached to a rigid part of the machine, a lever rigid with'one end of said shaft, a pitman connecting the extremity of said lever with said ruliling blade, and a spring for holding said proj ecting member against the edge of said cam plate, whereby a longitudinal movement of the shaft will cause an upward swing of the lever and a consequent raising of the blade.

9. A rufl'ling attachment for sewing machines, comprising a pivoted ruflling blade journaled on the extremity of a lever whose opposite end terminates in a shaft, means arranged to be operated by a moving part of the machine for oscillating said shaft and means for moving said lever transversely to the line of feed.

10. An attachment for sewing machines comprising a frame adapted to be rigidly secured to a part of the machine adjacent to the needle bar, a hollow bar mounted on said frame, a shaft passing through said hollow bar, the said shaft mounted to oscillate with a moving part of the machine, a depending lever rigidly attached to said shaft at its end adjacent to the needle bar, a rufl'ler blade pivoted to the lower end of said lever and means for shifting said bar laterally to throw the rufiiing blade into and out of operative position.

11. An attachment for sewing machines comprising a frame adapted to be removably secured to a rigid part of the machine adj acent to the needle bar, the said frame projecting outwardly and being recessed in said projected portion, a bar mounted therein, the end of said bar adjacent to the needle bar having a rigid lug depending therefrom at the lower extremity of which projects a foot plate, a rufl'ling blade arranged to be operated by a movingpart of the machine located over said foot plate, and means for shifting said bar laterally to throw the rufliing blade into and out of operative position.

12. An attachment for sewing machines comprising a frame adapted to be removably secured to a rigid part of the machine adjacent to the needle bar, the said frame projecting outwardly and having recesses in its projected ends, a bar mounted in said recesses, a cam plate having an inclined edge secured to the projected end of said frame, the end of said bar adjacent to the needle bar having a depending lug projecting inwardly from the lower end of which is attached a foot plate, a shaft passing through said bar, having a lever depending from the end of same adjacent to the needle bar, a rufiiing blade pivotally mounted to the lower end of said lever, an inner shaft passing through the first mentioned shaft and having a pin projecting therefrom and engaging the edge of said cam, a rigid lever projecting inwardly from the opposite end of said first mentioned shaft, a spring attached to said frame for yieldingly holding said projecting pin in engagement with the edge of said cam, and means for shifting said bar laterally to throw the ruiiiing blade into and out of operative position.

18. The combination with an over stitching mechanism, of a ruftler blade, a stationary stripper blade, means to reciprocate said rufiiing blade, means to shift said rufiiing mechanism laterally, and means to raise and depress said ruliiing blade when the same is in the line of feed.

14:. The combination with overstitching mechanism, of rufiiing mechanism including a ruffiing blade, means for throwing the ruffling mechanism bodily into and out of operative position and for rendering the rufliing blade operative or inoperative.

15. The combination with over-stitching mechanism of rufliing mechanism and means for shifting said rufliing mechanism transversely to the line of feed.

16. The combination with over-stitching mechanism, of rufliling mechanism and means for instantaneously throwing said 10 rufliing mechanism transversely to theline of feed.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 12th day of June, A. D. 1906.

I HARRY J. DAHL. Witnesses:

HARRY COBB KENNEDY, JOHN B. RUTHERFORD.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by' addressing' the Commissioner of Patent. Washington, D. G. 

